Telecom History Since 1842 Till Now

8/3/2019 Telecom History Since 1842 Till Now

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TELECOM HISTORY SINCE 1842 TILL NOW

With the dramatic changes in interpersonal communication over the past decade,

Internet messaging has emerged as the primary medium for transferring information

quickly, inexpensively, and reliably. However, the growing popularity of wireless

telephones has added another dimension to the communications equationmobility.

As more Indians rely on cellular communication, this market is expected to see

explosive growth over the forecast period.

Lets have a review of telecommunication History:-

TELECOM HISTORY

1842: Wireless by conduction

1843: Early electromagnetic research, wireless by induction

1865: Induction and Dr. Loomis

Early radio discoveries

1879: D.E. Hughes and the first radio-telephone reception

1880: The photo phone and the first voice radio-telephone call

1880 to 1900: Radio development begins in earnest

1910: The first car-telephone

1924: The first car-mounted radio-telephone

1937: Early conventional radio-telephone development

The modern era begins

1946: The first commercial American radio-telephone service

1947: Cellular systems first discussed


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1948: The first automatic radio telephone service

1969: The first cellular radio system

1973: The Father of the cell phone

1978: First generation analog cellular systems begin

1980: Growth of Japanese cellular development

1981: NMT -- the first multinational cellular system

1982: The rise of GSM

1990: North America goes digital: IS-54

Prehistory (Birth to Bell Labs, 1924)

While puzzling over the mysteries of radio, many inventors worked concurrently on

power generation, telegraphs, lighting, and later, telephone. The thorough

understanding of electricity required to produce a reliable, practical radio system took

a long time and happened in different phases.

In 1820, Danish physicist Christian Ousted discovered electromagnetism, the science

that could help generate electrical power and, if fully understood and applied, usher in

the era of telecommunication.

Michael Faraday - 1791 to 1867

In 1821 Michael Faraday reversed Oberstars experiment and in so doing discovered


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induction. This helped him build the world's first electricity generator. He worked on

different electrical problems in the next ten years, eventually publishing his results on

induction in 1831.

Joseph Henry - 1797 to 1878

In 1830 the great American scientist Professor Joseph Henry transmitted the first

practical electrical signal; showing that electromagnetism could do more than just

create current or pick up heavy weights -- it could communicate. In a stunning

demonstration in his Albany Academy classroom, Henry created the forerunner of the

telegraph. While Henry did not pursue electrical signaling, he did help someone who

did. And that man was Samuel Finley Breese Morse.

Samuel Morse - 1791 to 1872

In 1837 Samuel Morse invented the first practical telegraph, applied for its patent in

1838 and was finally granted it in 1848. Joseph Henry helped Morse build a telegraph

relay or repeater that allowed long distance operation. The telegraph brought the

country closer and eventually the world. Morse also experimented with wireless, not

by passing signals though the atmosphere but through the earth and water. Without a

cable.

Wireless by conduction

On October 18, 1842, Morse laid wires between Governor's Island and Castle Garden,


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New York, a distance of about a mile. Part of that circuit was under water. But before

he could complete this demonstration a passing ship pulled up his cable, ending it

seemed, his experiment. Undaunted, Morse proceeded without the cable, passing his

telegraph signals through the water itself. This is wireless by conduction.

Over the next thirty years most inventors and developers concentrated on wire line

telegraphy, that is, conventional telegraphy carried over wires suspended on poles.

Few tinkered exclusively with wireless since a basic radio theory had not yet been

worked out. Telegraphy, however, did produce a good understanding of wireless by

induction since wires ran parallel to each other and often induced rogue currents into

other lines.

Early electromagnetic research

In 1843 Faraday began intensive research into whether space could conduct

electricity.

In 1864 Maxwell released his paper "Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic

Field" which concluded that light, electricity and magnetism were all related and that

all electromagnetic phenomena travelled in waves.

Induction and Dr. Loomis

In 1865, a dentist Dr. Mahlon Loomis of Virginia may have been the first person to

communicate through wireless via the atmosphere. Between 1866 and 1873 he


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transmitted telegraphic messages at a distance of 18 miles. At one location he even

flew a metal-framed kite on a metal wire, perhaps taking inspiration from Benjamin

Franklin. At another location a similar kite picked up these signals and noted them

with a galvanometer.

Early radio discoveries

Maxwell's 1864 conclusions were distributed around the world and created a

sensation. But it was not until 1888 that Professor Heinrich Hertz of Bonn, Germany,

could produce and detect radio waves consistently and reliably.

On November 22, 1875, while working on acoustical telegraphy, a science close to

telephony, Thomas Alva Edison noticed unusual looking electro-magnetic sparks.

D.E. Hughes and the first radio-telephone reception

From 1879 to 1886, London-born David Hughes discovered radio waves but

was told incorrectly that he had discovered no such thing. Discouraged, he pursued

radio no further.

Hughes noticed a clicking noise in his home built telephone each time he worked

using his induction balance, a device now often used as a metal detector. He

transmitted signals from one room to another in his house in London. But since the

greatest range there was about 60 feet, Hughes took to the streets with his telephone,

intently listening for the clicking produced by his clockwork transmitter, gradually

diminishing until it no longer could be heard.

Alexander Graham Bell was the man who invented the telephone and made

the first call on a wired telephone to Thomas Watson. Bell was also first with radio.


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1888 onwards: Radio development begins in earnest

In 1888 the German, Heinrich Hertz, conclusively proved Maxwell's

prediction that electricity could travel in waves through the atmosphere. Unlike

Hughes, the extensive and systematic experiments into radio waves that Hertz

conducted were recognised and validated by inventors around the world.

Jagadish Chandra Bose demonstrated electromagnetic waves in 1895 "by using them

to ring a bell remotely and to explode some gunpowder".

Marconi established the first successful radio system. In 1901, his radio-telegraph

system sent signals across the Atlantic Ocean. Ships were the first wireless mobile

platforms. In 1901 Marconi placed a radio aboard a Thorny croft steam-powered

truck, thus producing the first land-based wireless mobile transmitting data, not voice.

In December 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden accomplished the first radio

bandwave communication of human speech over a distance of 11 miles, from Brant

Rock, Massachusetts, to ships in the Atlantic Ocean. Radio was no longer limited to

telegraph codes, no longer just a wireless telegraph, but a means of verbal

communication.

The first car-telephone

From 1910 onwards, Lars Magnus Ericsson, the man who founded Ericsson

in 1876, and his wife Hilda, regularly worked the first car telephone. Access was not

by radio, instead there were two long sticks, like fishing rods, handled by Hilda. She

would hook them over a pair of telephone wires, seeking a pair that was free. When


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they were found, Lars Magnus would crank the dynamo handle of the telephone,

which produced a signal to an operator in the nearest exchange.

Around the same time, the triode tube was developed, allowing far greater

signal strength to be developed both for wireline and wireless telephony. No longer

passive like a crystal set, a triode was powered by an external source, which provided

much better reception and volume.

Later, with Armstrong's regenerative circuit, tubes were developed that could

either transmit or receive signals, were stable and powerful enough to carry the human

voice and sensitive enough to detect those signals in the radio spectrum.

In 1919, three firms came together to develop a wireless company that one day

would have a reach across the globe. Heavy equipment maker ASEA, boiler and gas

equipment maker AGA and telephone manufacturer LM Ericsson, formed SRA

Radio, the forerunner of Ericsson's radio division.

The first car-mounted radio-telephone

Bell Laboratories claims to have invented the first version of a mobile in 1924.

It was a two-way, voice-based radio-telephone and the adjoining photograph from

their site certainly seems to confirm it.

History of cellular mobile telephony: 1982 to 2001

1980 - First cellular phones began to appear

1982 - Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) standard


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1983 - American Mobile Phone System (AMPS) standard

1986 - Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) 900 MHz

1991 - Commercial launch of the GSM service

1993 - Coverage of main roads GSM services start outside Europe

1994 - Japanese Digital Cellular (JDC)

1996 - USA Personal Communications Systems (PCS)

1982 - The beginning

During the early 1980s, analog cellular telephone systems experienced rapid

growth in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, but also in

France and Germany. Each country developed its own system, which was

incompatible with those of others, in equipment and operation. This was an

undesirable situation, because not only was the mobile equipment limited to operation

within national boundaries, but also limited to the market for each type of equipment.

This scenario in a unified Europe was undesirable.

The Europeans realized this early on, and in 1982, the Conference of European

Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) form a study group called the Group Special Mobile

(GSM) to study and develop a pan-European public land mobile system. The

proposed system had to meet certain criteria, which included:

1. Good subjective speech quality.

2. Low terminal and service cost.

3. Support for international roaming.

4. Ability to support handheld terminals.


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5. Support for a range of new services and facilities.

6. Spectral efficiency

7. ISDN compatibility.

Nordic Telecom and Netherlands PTT proposed to the CEPT the development

of a new digital cellular standard that would cope with the ever-burgeoning demands

on European mobile networks. The European Commission (EC) issued a directive

which required member states to reserve frequencies in the 900 MHz band for GSM

to allow for roaming.

1986 Main GSM radio transmission techniques were chosen.

1987 September - 13 operators and administrators from 12 areas in the CEPT GSM

advisory group signed the charter GSM (Groupe Spciale Mobile) MoU "Club"

agreement, with a launch date of 1 July 1991.

The original French name Groupe Spciale Mobile was changed to Global System for

Mobile communications; but the original GSM acronym remains.

GSM SPECIFICATIONS WERE DRAFTED.

19891998

In 1989, GSM responsibility was transferred to the European

Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), and phase I of the GSM specifications

was published in 1990. Commercial services started in mid 1991, and by 1993 there

were 36 GSM networks in 22 countries, with 25 additional countries like South

Africa, Australia and many Middle and Far East countries opting for GSM. By the

beginning of 1994, there were 1.3 million subscribers worldwide.


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The developers of GSM chose an unproven (at that time) digital system, as

opposed to the then standard analog cellular systems like AMPS in the United States

and TACS in the United Kingdom. They had faith in the advancements in

compression algorithms and digital signal processors to allow the fulfillment of the

original criteria and the continual improvement of the system in terms of quality and

cost.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) defined GSM

as the internationally accepted digital cellular telephony standard.

1990

Phase 1 GSM 900 specifications were frozen

DCS adaptation started.

Validation systems implemented.

First GSM World congress at Rome had 650 participants.

1991

First GSM specification was demonstrated.

DCS specifications were frozen.

GSM World Congress at Nice had 690 participants.

1992

January - The first GSM network operator was Oy Radiolinja Ab in Finland.

December 1992 - 13 networks were on air in 7 areas.

GSM World Congress at Berlin had 630 participants.


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1993

GSM was demonstrated for the first time in Africa at Telkom '93 in Cape Town.

Roaming agreements between several operators were established.

By December 1993, 32 networks were on air in 18 areas.

GSM World Congress at Lisbon progressed with 760 participants.

Telkom '93 was held in Cape Town. First GSM systems were shown.

1994

First GSM networks in Africa were launched in South Africa.

Phase 2 data /fax bearer services were launched.

Vodacom became the first GSM network in the world to implement data/fax.

GSM World Congress at Athens drew 780 participants.

December 1994 -- 69 networks were on air in 43 areas.

1995

GSM MOU was formally registered as an association registered in Switzerland with

156 members from 86 areas.

GSM World Congress at Madrid attracted 1400 participants.


Fax, Data and SMS roaming started.

GSM phase 2 standardisation was completed, including adaptation for PCS 1900.

First PCS 1900 network was shown live 'on air' in the USA.

Telecom '95, Geneva -- Nokia shows 33.6 kbps multimedia data via GSM.

Namibia goes on-line.

Ericsson 337 wins GSM phone of the year.

US FCC auctioned off PCS licenses.


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1996


GSM World Congress was held in Cannes.

GSM MOU Plenary was held in Atlanta GA, USA.

8K SIM was launched.

Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched.

Bundled billing was introduced in South Africa.

Libya goes on-line.

Option International launches the world's first GSM/Fixed-line modem.

2001

Feb -- GSM Conference held in Cannes.

By May 2001 there were 500m GSM 900/1800/1900 users worldwide.

16 billion SMS messages were sent in April 2001.

By April, 500 million people are GSM users.

Telecom History Since 1842 Till Now

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